Drones are expensive. Aircraft like General Atomics's MQ-1 Predator or MQ-9 Reaper cost millions of dollars piece, while the cost of maintaining the fleet stretches into the high tens of billions dollars over their lifespans. The Pentagon's internal watchdog is aware of this, and recently lambasted the Air Force for not justifying the purchase of 46 Reapers—potentially wasting $8.8 billion of taxpayers' money.

That's a lot of taxpayer dollars! In fact, that's well over half of what the government spends on veterans education benefits. How could the Air Force be so reckless? Well, according to the inspector general, the main problem with the purchases is the simple fact that the Air Force can't justify it. Or rather, the branch's air combat command didn't even try. In inspector general speak, they "did not conduct and maintain consistent, complete and verifiable analyses for determining the necessary MQ-9 procurement quantity." The commanders just spent the taxpayer dollars.

Advertisement

The Air Force, perhaps obviously, takes a different view of the matter. "The air combat command's director of plans said the Pentagon study significantly overstated the potential waste costs, pegging it at $593.4m for 46 Reapers instead of nearly $9bn, and underestimated the stress on the air force to provide sufficient drones for commanders," reportsThe Guardian's Spencer Ackerman who obtained a copy of the inspector general's original report. The Air Force also claims that it's buying 346 drones instead of the 401 that the inspector general says it's buying.